| Subject: Indonesia's
General Wiranto Denies War Crimes
Indonesian military did not order E.Timor
killings: Wiranto
JAKARTA, Dec 24 (AFP) - Former Indonesian
armed forces chief General Wiranto on Friday told a human rights
commission there had been no plan or policy for either a genocide or
crimes against humanity in East Timor.
"There was no planning process or
policy to do things that can be classified as genocide or crimes against
humanity," Wiranto told journalists after answering questions from
the state-backed Commission of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor (KPP
HAM).
Wiranto said the institution of the
Indonesian armed forces "has never issued the order, even more so to
encourage, the burning of cities, the killing of people or to force
evacuations."
KPP HAM has summoned Wiranto, as well as
five other generals and several top pro-Indonesia militia leaders to
answer questions over their "knowledge and involvement" in the
September mayhem that followed the announcement of the pro-independence
ballot in East Timor.
The militias, which the United Nations,
the KPP HAM and other observers have said were backed by elements of the
Indonesian army, devastated the territory and forced hundreds of thousands
to flee.
Wiranto was accompanied by three lawyers
and former justice minister Muladi (eds: one name), who coordinates the
defence team for the armed forces over East Timor.
"This is not an arena where a
suspect is interrogated," he said of the nearly three hours of
questioning.
"This is a process of giving
information to the KPP HAM, to deflect accusations by several sides that
there were war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in East
Timor."
Wiranto, coordinating minister for
security and political affairs in the cabinet of President Abdurrahman
Wahid, was military commander during the violence in East Timor.
He was questioned by KPP HAM members
Todung Mulya Lubis, Nursyahbani Kacasungkana, Munir (Eds: one name) and
Asmara Nababan, commission chairman Albert Hasibuan said.
Nababan said the information obtained
from Wiranto "has answered our questions."
But he added the general's statements
would be cross-checked with those from other military officers.
KPP HAM member Kusparmono Irsan said the
commission's qestionning of military officers has so far yielded little.
"Our investigation is stagnating, we
are not moving forward or backward," Irsan said after questioning a
former intelligence head of a district military command in East Timor
earlier Friday.
The body also questioned a former
military commander before Wiranto.
Indonesia has objected to the setting up
of a UN rights inquiry into the East Timor violence, saying it is capable
of investigating allegations of atrocities and human rights abuses itself,
and that it will not be bound by the UN findings.
The UN panel is to report to Secretary
General Kofi Annan before December 31 to enable him to decide on the
follow up, including whether an international war crimes tribunal is
needed.
Associated Press December 24, 1999
Indonesian General Denies War Crimes
By IRWAN FIRDAUS
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Determined to
clear his name as allegations of war crimes swirl around him, Indonesia's
former military chief denied that army commanders had instigated the
destruction of East Timor after it voted for independence.
Gen. Wiranto testified today before a
government-appointed panel investigating human rights abuses in East
Timor, where three months ago anti-independence militiamen went on a
rampage reportedly with the army's backing.
``There was absolutely no such policy or
planning process by (army) leaders,'' Wiranto told journalists after
testifying.
``There are no grounds for accusations
about killings, burnings, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity,''
said the general, who is now a senior minister in the cabinet of
Indonesia's new President Abdurrahman Wahid.
The war crimes issue has become a thorny
problem for the government, which is trying to avoid provoking its
politically powerful generals. Indonesian and U.N. investigators, however,
say they have ample evidence implicating Wiranto and other top commanders
in the violence.
Members of Indonesia's Investigative
Commission for Human Rights Abuses in East Timor said in an interim
finding that army generals - including Wiranto - should be held
accountable because they knew violence was taking place but failed to stop
it.
A separate U.N. team probing atrocities
in East Timor recommended on Wednesday that the Security Council establish
an international war crimes tribunal - similar to those for Rwanda and
former Yugoslavia - to try the generals unless Jakarta acts quickly to
bring them to justice.
But Wahid, who assumed office in October,
has insisted he would not allow the men to appear before an international
tribunal. Instead, he has said that Indonesia's judicial system would try
those responsible for atrocities in East Timor.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese
colony in 1975 and annexed it the following year. On Aug. 30, the East
Timorese voted for independence in a U.N.-sponsored referendum.
Days later, pro-Indonesian militia gangs
went on a rampage, killing residents, burning and looting houses and
driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
In their report, U.N. investigators
accused Indonesian troops of supporting the militias, as well as
participating in the destruction, which only stopped after international
peacekeepers arrived on Sept. 20.
Wiranto, however, blamed the violence on
groups ``dissatisfied'' by the outcome of the ballot.
``The burning occurred after the
referendum because there were some factions who lost,'' he said after the
two-hour hearing. ``They became emotional and disappointed and reacted
with destruction.''
The U.N. chief in the territory, Sergio
Vieira de Mello, said an East Timorese criminal court would be set up to
investigate killings during the rampage.
International forensic experts will
arrive in January to help in investigations of mass graves, he said. Some
230 bodies have been found across the territory, since international
peacekeepers arrived.
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